Dark Souls 2 Review

A matter of life and death.

A refined, slicker version of one of the greatest video games ever made.

10Out of 10

10Out of 10

Still the most rewarding challenge in all of gaming.

Unique, imaginative, multiplayer.

Stunning art and sound.

Dark Souls. That's the really hard one, right? Sure, but the difficulty is far from why it is so memorable. The freedom of choice when it comes to every aspect of your adventure, the rich lore of the world that makes everything have a purpose and the intelligent approach to multiplayer is what actually makes it. All of these factors are present in this long-awaited sequel.

There's been a few concessions made to make the game more accessible and this isn't necessarily as bad a thing as you may think. For instance, the game now actually explains what most things do. Revolutionary, right? Sure, this may take away some of the mystery, but realistically this has just saved you going to a Wiki. The ability to teleport between areas and have enemies disappear after killing them twelve times might seem like a cop out, but instead expedites progress. Progress into areas that still offer that brilliant, intense challenge, rather than trailing over ground traveled a million times.

None of this stuff has come at the expense of content for the experienced Dark Souls player, either. The changes to the character classes, such as dual wielding weapons, now offer much more varied character builds. There's also far more opportunities to tackle the game in the order of your choosing, if you're skilled enough, and these new areas are stunning to look at and absolutely full of fiendish ways for you to meet your maker. From Software really did master this gameplay experience with Dark Souls, so for this sequel they've just sharpened all of the ideas to a razor sharp (and deadly) point, but have given more players the opportunity to get stuck in.

Dark Souls 2 is a refined, slicker version of what I consider to be the greatest video game ever made, and it is a title we'll be finding more and more about post-release as its genius is fully uncovered.

Version Tested: PS3. Played for 40 hours and died countless, countless times.